I’ve long been familiar with “WhatTheFont” as a last-ditch attempt at finding a particular typeface – especially a “decorative” one. For more “standard” fonts, I have found that the whole “scan a sample and upload” process to be a bit cumbersome – especially when I don’t have a scanner handy.

As an alternative when searching for body text, I would suggest IdentiFont (www.identifont.com). Just put in the letters you have, and answer a few questions, and you usually get something close, if not exact.